Billy Bob Thornton plays a manipulative drifter who brings murder, mayhem and a few dark giggles to a snow-encrusted Minnesota town in the limited FX series “Fargo.”

Photo: FX

Billy Bob Thornton plays a manipulative drifter who brings murder,...

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Martin Freeman as Lester Nygaard in "Fargo."

Photo: Chris Large, Associated Press

Martin Freeman as Lester Nygaard in "Fargo."

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This image released by FX shows Allison Tolman as Molly Solverson, left, and Bob Odenkirk as Bill Oswalt in a scene from "Fargo." The 10-episode season premieres Tuesday at 10 p.m. EDT on FX. (AP Photo/FX, Chris Large)

Photo: Chris Large, Associated Press

This image released by FX shows Allison Tolman as Molly Solverson,...

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Allison Tolman as Molly Solverson in a scene from "Fargo."

Photo: Chris Large, Associated Press

Allison Tolman as Molly Solverson in a scene from "Fargo."

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Allison Tolman as Molly Solverson, left, and Shawn Doyle as Vern Thurman in a scene from "Fargo."

Photo: Chris Large, Associated Press

Allison Tolman as Molly Solverson, left, and Shawn Doyle as Vern...

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Shawn Doyle as Vern Thurman, left, and Allison Tolman as Molly Solverson in a scene from "Fargo."

Photo: Chris Large, Associated Press

Shawn Doyle as Vern Thurman, left, and Allison Tolman as Molly...

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Billy Bob Thornton plays the serenely creepy Lorne Malvo, the most riveting character in "Fargo."

Photo: Chris Large, FX

Billy Bob Thornton plays the serenely creepy Lorne Malvo, the most...

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Allison Tolman plays Molly Solverson, the policewoman on the case, and Bob Odenkirk is her clueless boss, Bill Oswalt.

There's more to adapting a classic film for TV than merely replicating the plot and characters of the original. Noah Hawley, the creator and writer of the new FX series "Fargo," knows that, which is both why the show has its own identity yet remains too closely tethered to the original 1996 Coen brothers film.

The 10-part series, which begins Tuesday, opens much as the film did: A written prologue repeats the claim that the story, now set in 2006, is true and that the facts are told exactly as they occurred as a sign of respect for the dead.

Many of the characters are similar but not exact duplicates of those in the Coens' film. Instead of Jerry Lundegaard, played by William H. Macy, we get Lester Nygaard, played by Martin Freeman ("Sherlock"). Where Jerry sold cars for his bullying father-in-law, Lester sells insurance. Both men are having domestic issues, but where Jerry hired a couple of second-rate thugs he meets in Fargo, N.D., to kidnap his wife to extort money from her father, Lester only harbors secret resentment toward his wife, until a chance meeting in a hospital waiting room sets in motion a chain of events that results in multiple deaths.

Bright female cop

Frances McDormand's character, Marge Gunderson, was pregnant when she solved the crimes in the film. Her TV counterpart, Molly Solverson (Allison Tolman, "Sordid Lives: The Series"), is not pregnant, but she eventually displays the intelligence and instinct needed to see the links between several homicides, even if her boss, Bemidji, Minn., cop Bill Oswalt (Bob Odenkirk, "Breaking Bad"), does not.

Lester winds up in the ER after an encounter with Sam Hess, as much of a bully as the father of two teenage bullies-in-training as he was when he tortured Lester back in high school. At the hospital, Lester tries to drink from a soda can, but his newly swollen nose makes it impossible for him to get the can close enough to his mouth. He readily surrenders the soda to another guy sitting next to him, the serenely creepy Lorne Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton, "Sling Blade"). Lester ends up inadvertently giving Malvo permission to kill Sam Hess.

There's an ambitiously mad brilliance to Hawley's concept, not just in creating something brand new that harks back to an unforgettable classic, but in capturing the thematic essence of the Coens' dark comedy.

As the local cops try to solve the mounting homicides, the plot becomes even more entangled with the arrival of two cartoonish hit men, Mr. Numbers (Adam Goldberg, "Saving Private Ryan") and Mr. Wrench (Russell Harvard, "There Will Be Blood"); the reluctant involvement of a low-ranking Duluth cop, Gus Grimly (Colin Hanks, "Dexter"); and the greed of Hess' ex-Vegas stripper widow, Gina (Kate Walsh, "Private Practice") and her sleazy personal trainer, Don Chumph (Glenn Howerton, "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia").

Yes, it's all preposterous, especially if we think of a little Minnesota town in the middle of snowbound nowhere, but here's where Hawley trips up - not fatally, but enough so that you'll find yourself wondering why you aren't reacting the same way you reacted to the film: He forces the irony from time to time. And irony works only if you accept it as occurring naturally or unintentionally, as in the way Lester first learns the meaning of "be careful what you wish for."

At times, there are actual punch lines in the script and the show veers into "writerly" territory. Example: One character tells a story about a guy getting hit on the head and killed by a large hailstone just as he's walking out of a Dairy Queen with a milk shake.

"What flavor was it?" asks another character.

"Strawberry," comes the deadpan answer.

In real life, this would not happen. In real life, the response would be something like, "Wow, what a weird way to go," or perhaps a certain guilty acknowledgment that the story is funny. The genius of the Coens' script was that the irony, and the humor, were entirely contextual, emanating from the unlikelihood of a series of murders occurring in a small town where everyone knew each other and evil seemed to be the last thing you'd expect to encounter.

Overlook the shortcomings

Perhaps we wouldn't have noticed these minor blips if the otherwise compelling TV "Fargo" hadn't made such an obvious effort to reference the 1996 film.

But make no mistake: You should overlook the shortcomings and enjoy the series on its own otherwise considerable merits, chief among them, of course, Billy Bob Thornton. He is riveting as Malvo, making such a powerful impression that you're always looking for him even when he's not in various scenes. Freeman, Tolman, Odenkirk and Hanks are almost as good, although the "doncha know" Minnesota accents seem to come and go.